January Storm Damage to Harbor Preventable, Engineers’ Report Says

An Army Corps of Engineers draft report says improvements the federal agency has proposed for the breakwaters in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor would have prevented virtually all of the $17-million damage caused by last month’s storm.

The Corps of Engineers will hold a public meeting on the draft report and proposed improvements at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Redondo Beach City Council chambers.

Corps spokesman Jared Miller said the recommendations may be revised after Wednesday’s public meeting and further study, but he doubted that any major changes will be made.

The corps plans to recommend to Congress that most of the lower end of the main breakwater, which is 12 feet high, be raised to 20 feet. The report recommends that 1,200 feet of that 2,000-foot section be raised. The higher end of the breakwater is already 20 feet high.

The corps also plans to recommend that the smaller jetty, which is 600 feet long, be extended to 900 feet.

Raising the main breakwater would create space for 30 more mooring spaces in the harbor.

Congress already has authorized the project--subject to approval by the corps’ chief of engineers and the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors--but will not appropriate the money until it gets the final corps report, probably in the fall, a corps official said.

The project would cost $5.76 million, according to the draft report, with the federal government and the city splitting the cost. However, City Manager Tim Casey said the city is hoping that Congress will approve legislation to reduce Redondo Beach’s share to 35%.

The recommendations are the result of a study done by the corps before the Jan. 17-18 storm. The study was based on less severe storms that have hit the harbor since 1980. After the January storm, however, a short section was added to the draft, reaffirming the recommendations.

The storm, which generated 25-foot waves and came during unusually high tides, caused $17 million worth of damage to mile-long King Harbor, of which $3 million was to public property. It swept six rooms of the Portofino Inn into the ocean; damaged about 25 other businesses, including four restaurants that will be closed for months; knocked out pier pilings and left at least seven large holes in the three-quarter-mile-long breakwater.

The three-paragraph supplement to the report said in part: “If the recommended plan was in place during the January storm, it is expected that . . . the damage would have been limited to minor cleanup. . . . No structural damage to buildings, revetments, parking areas would have been expected.”

City officials, business owners and boaters who have been asking the corps to raise the breakwater for at least 10 years, warning that it might not withstand a severe storm.

The corps studied 10 other alternatives for the breakwaters, ranging from making no improvements at all to raising the main breakwater to 24 feet.

Copies of the draft report can be reviewed at the Harbor Department in City Hall, the Redondo Beach City Library or the Army Corps of Engineers office at 300 N. Los Angeles St., Room 6633, Los Angeles 90053. People who cannot attend the meeting may send written comments to the corps office by March 7.